Birmingham Royal Ballet will be performing at the Crescent Theatre, Thursday 3 May and Friday 4 May. The Company presents a programme of three one-act ballets, with two being created especially for the festival.

The first piece is 9-5, by Company dancer Kit Holder. The work will see him expand the ideas behind his four-minute drum'n'bass ballet Printer Jam which was performed before HRH The Prince of Wales as part of Birmingham Royal
Ballet's 20th Anniversary Gala in 2010.

Here you can see a short video interview with Kit in which he discusses 9-5:

The second work in the programme is Lyric Pieces, by Jessica Lang. Usually based in New York, Jessica is currently here in Birmingham to work on the ballet with the Company.

Here you can see an interview recorded with Jessica early in the creative process:

The third piece in the triple bill will be David Bintley's
Take Five, to music by jazz icon Dave Brubeck.

'My Dad was always in a band when I was growing up', explained David when the piece was first performed in 2007. 'He played in a jazz band in the army, then he came out and he started his own, and they just used to rehearse in our front room. So
that's when I heard this music, and on top of that my dad had loads of jazz records that he used to play. And Brubeck was one of them that always stood out.'

Take Five was one of the final pieces that David choreographed on Principal dancer Robert Parker before he first retired as a performer in 2007. Robert was later persuaded to rejoin the Company, however will be leaving the Company again in summer 2012 to take the post of Artistic Director at Elmhurst School for Dance. As such, these IDFB performances offer a fitting final opportunity for audiences to see Robert dance another in a long list of roles that he himself has created.